“Sure. But we’d have to leave all civilization behind. Sleep under the stars. Wear animal skins.”

“Hey, watch it,” warned Tamsin.

Cedric looked at her in surprise. “There was nothing improper about that at all.”

“I know what you were thinking.”

“Can I at least kiss her goodbye?”

“No,” said Tamsin.

“And here I thought things were difficult before you got back.” Cedric dared a kiss on my cheek. “We’ll talk later. I’ve got to go break the news to Nicholas Adelton—assuming he hasn’t already heard it from some gossip.”

After Cedric was gone, Tamsin shook her head. “I don’t know how you got by without me.”

Despite the complications with Cedric, I still couldn’t get over the wonder of having her back. I gave her another fierce hug.

“Me either,” I said. “Me either.”

Chapter 21

Tamsin wasn’t kidding about jumping right into the Glittering Court’s busy world. Some of the new girls were clearly still in shock from all they’d endured. But for those, like Tamsin, who were ready to get back on track, Jasper had no problem helping them. A new wave of parties and one-on-one meetings were arranged for that week, and in no time, Tamsin’s reputation had spread, making her one of the most sought-after. Mira and I helped prepare her as best we could for life in Cape Triumph, but she seemed to need little adjustment. The settlers from Grashond were still around, and while Tamsin was polite to them, I noticed she went out of her way to avoid them. They were a disapproving lot, and Gideon—the young minister who’d helped save them—seemed especially troubled by the Glittering Court’s social whirlwind.

Meanwhile, I dropped out of the public eye and began preparations of an entirely different nature. As Warren had predicted, there were a number of families who were interested in having an interim teacher while Hadisen became established. I made an arrangement to help the children of multiple families with their studies. One of the families, the Marshalls, had a claim within riding distance of Cedric’s and offered to give me room and board.

Mistress Marshall was a stout, pleasant-faced woman with six children. “We’ll need the children to help around the homestead during the day,” she told me in one of our meetings. “But you can help them with their lessons at night.”

“That would be great,” I said. “I could help Cedric on the claim during the day—if you don’t need me around the house, that is. I want to earn my keep.”

“If I need you, I’ll let you know. But otherwise, I have no problem with you helping your young man, provided you give me your word nothing untoward will happen. And he’ll need to escort you there and back each day. I can’t have you traipsing through that wild land on your own.”

The arrangement suited me just fine, and I was excited that I’d get to help Cedric and hopefully wrap up this deal that much sooner. I saw little of him that week. He was busy, wrapped up in the logistics of supplies and claim arrangements.

“You realize I’m one of the ‘lucky’ ones,” he told me one day. “There’s actually some sort of shanty on the claim they’ve assigned me. Some prospector built it and then decided he didn’t like being in the wilderness. I hear it’s in disrepair, so I’ll have to buy some things to fix it up. But most of the miners are living in tents and lean-tos.”

We were in the cellar, where I’d finished the painting. Our relationship might be in the open, but we attracted too many prying eyes to feel comfortable speaking in public. “To think we first met in that drawing room,” I mused. “And now this shanty is the height of luxury.”

“Nah. I hear the Marshall family has a cabin. You won’t ever want to leave that palace to come see me.”

“I’ll see you as much as I can,” I insisted. “Though Mistress Marshall told me that nothing ‘untoward’ had better happen.”

He leaned back against an iron-hinged chest, hands in his pockets. “Well, she doesn’t need to worry about me. I’ll be on best behavior.”

I stepped toward him and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Who said you’re the one she has to worry about?”

I leaned in, not for a true kiss, but just for the barest brush of my lips against his. I lingered for a few tantalizing moments, holding back despite his obvious interest in more. His hands gripped my waist when I pulled away, his fingers curling into me.

“I should probably get going,” I said lightly. “I have things to do.”

“I could give you a few suggestions.”

“Important frontier things to do,” I amended. I trailed my fingers along the side of his neck. “Sorry if I led you on.”

“You are not. You’ve been leading me on since the day I met you, and I’ve been dutifully following. One day . . . one day I’ll catch you. And then . . .”

His mouth found mine, and I wrapped myself against him. I wanted more than kisses, more than embraces. I wanted to banish all the space between us until it was impossible to know where I ended and he began. When we finally broke away, I could hardly stand, and wondered who was really leading whom.

“And then,” I echoed with a sigh. “And then . . .”

I did have other things to do, and as we parted ways, I reminded myself that Cedric and I would have more time on our hands on the journey to Hadisen than we’d had together so far.

As he’d suggested, Aiana was the one to take me into town to shop. I’d spent little time with the Balanquan woman and was still fascinated by her. I came down Wisteria Hollow’s main staircase and was surprised to see Mira waiting with her by the door.

“What this?” I asked, not that I was unhappy to have Mira there. Although she wasn’t the busiest of the Glittering Court’s girls, she’d still been caught up in the routine of it all while I simply cooled my heels.

Mira looked far happier than she ever did about going out to a party. “Who knows when we’ll see you again, once you leave? We wanted to come along and get a little more Adelaide time in.”

“We?”

“Tamsin should be down any minute. She was finishing a letter.”

“She’s still writing them?” I asked. Tamsin had been in my thoughts constantly since the storm, but her obsessive letter writing had slipped my mind.

“She had a whole bundle of them that she brought back from Grashond. I guess she was still writing them there. And I heard her making inquiries about courier services back to Osfrid.”

Tamsin came down the stairs just then, radiant in a gown of deep emerald taffeta that bared her shoulders. “You know we’re going to buy wilderness supplies, right?” I asked. “There’s no formal luncheon planned.”

Tamsin lifted her chin. “It doesn’t matter where we’re going. I won’t look anything less than perfect—you never know who’ll be watching. Besides, I have a dinner engagement afterward. Warren’s mother has invited me over.”

“Well, I’m sure that’ll be very interesting,” I said, in as neutral a tone as I could manage. Tamsin had immediately honed in on him, and thus far he’d seemed to return her interest.